Deportees from the US in Panama go embassy to embassy in desperate scramble to seek asylum

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Migrants from Afghanistan, Russia, Iran and China deported from the United States and dropped into limbo in Panama hopped door-to-door at embassies and consulates this week in a desperate attempt to seek asylum in any country that would accept them.

The focus of international humanitarian concern just weeks before, the deportees now say they're increasingly worried that with little legal and humanitarian assistance and no clear pathway forward offered by authorities, they may be forgotten.

“After this, we don’t know what we’ll do,” said 29-year-old Hayatullah Omagh, who fled Afghanistan in 2022 after the Taliban takeover.

In February, the United States deported nearly 300 people from mostly Asian nations to Panama. The Central American ally was supposed to be a stopover for migrants from countries that were more challenging for the U.S. to deport to as the Trump administration tried to accelerate deportations. Some agreed to voluntarily return to their countries from Panama, but others refused out of fear of persecution and were sent to a remote camp in the Darien jungle for weeks.

Earlier this month, Panama released those remaining migrants from the camp, giving them one month to leave Panama. The government said they had declined assistance from international organizations, instead choosing to make their own arrangements. But with limited money, no familiarity with Panama and little to no Spanish, the migrants have struggled.

On Tuesday, about a dozen migrants began visiting foreign missions in Panama's capital, including the Canadian and British embassies, and the Swiss and Australian consulates with the hope of starting the process to seek refuge in those countries. They were either turned away or told that they would need to call or reach out to embassies by email. Messages were met with no response or a generic response saying embassies couldn’t help.

In one email, Omagh detailed why he had to flee his country, writing “please don’t let me be sent back to Afghanistan, a place where there is no way for me to survive."

“The Embassy of Canada in Panama does not offer visa or immigration services, not either services for refugee. Nor are we allowed to answer any questions in regards to visa or immigration,” the response read.

At the British Embassy, a security guard handed asylum-seekers a pamphlet reading “Emergency Help for British People.” The Swiss consulate told the group they would have to reach out to the embassy in Costa Rica, and handed the migrants a piece of paper with general phone lines and emails printed from the embassy’s website.

Canadian, British and Australian diplomats in Panama did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. The Swiss consulate denied that they turned away the asylum-seekers.

The migrants had travelled halfway across the globe, reached the U.S. border where they sought asylum and instead found themselves in Panama, a country some had traversed months earlier on their way to the U.S.

Many of the deportees said they would be open to seeking asylum in Panama, but had been told both by international aid groups and Panamanian authorities that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to be granted refuge in the Central American nation.

Álvaro Botero, among those advocating for the migrants at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, said he wasn’t surprised that they were turned away from embassies, as such help is often only offered in extreme cases of political persecution, and that other governments may fear tensions with the Trump administration.

“It’s crucial that these people are not forgotten,” Botero said. “They never asked to be sent to Panama, and now they’re in Panama with no idea what to do, without knowing what their future will be and unable to return to their countries.”

The Trump administration has simultaneously closed legal pathways to the U.S. at its southern border, ramped up its deportation program, suspended its refugee resettlement program, as well as funding for organizations that could potentially aid the migrants now stuck in Panama.

Over the weekend, the Trump administration sent more than 200 Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador to be held in a maximum-security gang prison, alleging that those expelled were part the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang without providing evidence.

On Thursday, the migrants visited the Panama offices of the U.N. refugee agency. Omagh said they were told that the agency could not help them seek asylum in other countries due to restrictions by the Panamanian government. A U.N. official told them they could help start the asylum process in Panama, but warned that it was very unlikely that Panama’s government would accept their claim, Omagh said.

The U.N.'s International Organization for Migration and the refugee agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment by the AP.

The same day, Filippo Grandi, head of the U.N. refugee agency, warned that aid cuts by the U.S. government would hurt refugee services around the world.

“We appeal to member States to honor their commitments to displaced people. Now is the time for solidarity, not retreat,” Grandi said in a statement.

Deportees including Omagh worried that foreign governments and aid organizations were washing their hands of them.

Omagh said that as an atheist and member of an ethnic minority group in Afghanistan known as the Hazara, returning home under the rule of the Taliban would mean death. He only went to the U.S. after trying for years to live in Pakistan, Iran and other countries but being denied visas.

Russian Aleksandr Surgin, also among the group seeking help at the embassies, said he left his country because he openly opposed the war in Ukraine on social media, and was told by government officials he could either be jailed or fight with Russian troops in Ukraine.

When asked Thursday what he would do next, he responded simply: “I don’t hope for anything anymore.”

Janetsky reported from Mexico City.

Migrants from Afghanistan and Russia, who were deported from the U.S., wait at the Canadian Embassy in Panama City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025, in an effort to seek asylum. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Hayatullah Omagh, an Afghan migrant who was deported from the U.S., looks at his phone at the United Nations Refugee Agency office he visited seeking advice on how and where to seek asylum in Panama City, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Afghan migrants deported from the U.S. relax at a park after visiting the United Nations Refugee Agency office in Panama City, Thursday, March 20, 2025, seeking advice on how and where to seek asylum. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Aleksandr Surgin, a Russian migrant deported from the U.S., photographs a raccoon on the waterfront after visiting the Canadian Embassy in Panama City, in an attempt to seek asylum, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Afghan migrants deported from the U.S. wait outside the British Embassy in Panama City, which they visited in hopes of applying for asylum, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Migrants from Afghanistan, Russia and China, who were deported from the U.S., ride an elevator after visiting the Australian Consulate in Panama City, with the hope to start an asylum application process, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Migrants from Afghanistan and Russia, who were deported from the U.S., walk along the waterfront in Panama City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025, after visiting the Canadian Embassy in hopes of applying for asylum. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Afghan migrants deported from the U.S. walk to the UN Refugee Agency office in Panama City, Thursday, March 20, 2025, seeking advice on how and where to seek asylum. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Three people died and 15 others were injured after an altercation broke out Friday at a park in the desert city of Las Cruces, New Mexico, police said Saturday.

Police and fire crews arrived at just after 10 p.m. Friday onto a chaotic scene at the city's Young Park, where an unauthorized car show had drawn about 200 people, police said during a news conference. Gunshot victims ranging in age from 16 to 36 were treated on the scene or sent to area hospitals.

Between 50 and 60 shell casings — all from handguns — were found scattered across a wide swath of the large park, Police Chief Jeremy Strong said, suggesting multiple shooters and multiple weapons within the two opposing groups. Several others were injured in the crossfire, he said.

Those who died were two 19-year-old men and a 16-year-old boy. Their names and those of the other victims were not yet being released. Local police were being assisted in their investigation by New Mexico State Police, the Dona Ana County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Las Cruces Fire Chief Michael Daniels said seven patients were treated at the scene, including two who died, and 11 others were sent to three local hospitals or to University Medical Center of El Paso, the regional trauma center. By Saturday, seven of the surviving victims were in El Paso, while four others had been treated and released and the four remaining victims' conditions were not known, he said.

Authorities continued to solicit videos and other tips from those in attendance as they worked to identify a suspect or suspects who carried out the attack.

“This horrendous, senseless act is a stark reminder of the blatant disregard people in New Mexico have for the rule of law and order,” Strong said, vowing about the perpetrators to “find each and every one of them, and we will. We will hold them accountable to the criminal justice system.”

In a post to Instagram on Saturday, Las Cruces City Councilor and Mayor Pro Tem Johana Bencomo expressed grief at the tragedy.

“Part of me wanted to write that this is something you never really think this is going to happen in your city, but that actually feels deeply untrue,” she wrote. “Honestly now days a tragedy like this feels like a nightmare just waiting to come true at any possible moment, yet also always praying and hoping it never will.”

Las Cruces sits on the edge of the Chihuahuan Desert along the Rio Grande River in southern New Mexico, about 41 miles (66 kilometers) north of the U.S.-Mexican border.

The department was still on scene Saturday and the area around the park was closed to traffic, according to local media reports.

“This is a huge crime scene with a lot of moving parts,” he said. “It will take time to process it thoroughly and reopen everything.”

The shootings cast a pall over efforts by New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and the state Legislature to find effective solutions to persistently high crime rates and concerns about gun violence.

Lujan Grisham recently signed off on a package of enhanced penalties for vehicle theft, fentanyl trafficking, school-shooting threats – along with a ban on devices that convert guns to automatic weapons. Legislators passed an overhaul of the state’s red-flag gun law that can temporarily remove firearms from people who may be a danger, and bolstered funding for addiction and mental health treatment.

But the governor also said this week she was “appalled” by progress on juvenile justice reforms, as time ran out on a 60-day legislative session on Saturday at noon.

Smyth reported from Columbus, Ohio. Morgan Lee in Santa Fe contributed to this report.

Crime scene technicians look over the Young Park parking lot after a mass shooting overnight, Saturday, March 22, 2025 in Las Cruces, N.M. (Justin Garcia/The Albuquerque Journal via AP)